"These are not making it to anybody's dinner table," said Beth Ravit, a professor of Environmental Sciences at Rutgers University as she stood on the small research reef less than a mile offshore from the Keyport, N.J. harbor.

Oyster Rebirth About to End in NJ

On the Jersey side of the New York harbor, a longstanding effort to prove oysters can once again grow here is about to come to an end. Brian Thompson reports. (Published Wednesday, Jun 9, 2010)

What she held was a wire basket the size of a briefcase filled with a dozen or so large clam shells, and growing on them in several spots were small oysters that had been planted there as juveniles last fall.

But even the possibility that they could grow to "market" size is too much for the DEP: The oysters, which are growing in polluted waters, could be poached, end up on a dinner table and then make someone sick.

"All you need is one person to eat tainted shellfish to kill an industry," said DEP Spokesman Larry Ragonese.

He explained the new state ban on research "oyster gardening" in restricted waters is aimed at protecting the reputation of New Jersey's multi-million dollar shellfish industry.

All of Raritan Bay, for example, is considered restricted waters, primarily due to the runoff of animal waste, as well as the discharge of insufficiently treated human waste from sewage treatment plants lining the bay or upstream in the Raritan River.

"This is an effort to minimize risk," said DEP Deputy Commissioner Amy Craddock.

At the Keyport Fishery a couple of miles from the Baykeeper's research reef, more than a dozen pictures of an active oyster industry from 70 or 80 years ago line the walls of the popular seafood market.

Yet Michael Nosti, 24 and son of the owner, seemed sympathetic to the state's ban.